Heard on the Floor at FEW

by Jim Kendrick (Biofuels Digest) ... Renewable Fuels Association calls for EPA action, E15 access, and 45Z clarity

The Renewable Fuels Association is advocating for policies to “unleash American ethanol,” according to its president and CEO Geoff Cooper, who delivered the keynote address to the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Omaha, Nebraska on June 10. The priorities: finalize strong Renewable Fuel Standard volumes for 2026 and beyond, pass year-round E15 legislation, expand international ethanol trade, establish fair emissions regulations for fuel technologies, and clarify implementation of the 45Z clean fuel tax credit.

“RFA has been regularly reminding EPA that if it approves any SRE (small refinery exemption) petitions, it has a legal obligation to reallocate the exempted volumes to other non-exempt refiners.”

“We believe any regulations focused on GHG emissions need to be fair and honest in how they account for the carbon impacts of different fuels and vehicles,” he said. “They need to be science-based. They need to be technology neutral. And we should be letting consumers in the marketplace determine the best ways of reducing carbon.” He pointed to flex-fuel vehicles running on E85, which RFA believes can match or exceed the emissions performance of EVs depending on the grid, often at a lower cost.

On the 45Z tax credit, Cooper said the program “needs clarity, certainty, and desperately some stability.” Though the credit was meant to take effect January 1, final regulations are still pending. A House budget bill would extend the credit through 2031 and remove indirect land use penalties, lowering CI (carbon intensity) scores by about 10%, but also repeal transferability after 2027 which Cooper warned could make it hard for producers to monetize the credit.

Who tamed whom? Leaf by Lesaffre’s Marcelo Amaral on fermentation, flexibility, and the future of ethanol

In San Francisco, Marcelo Amaral, General Manager of industrial biotech Leaf by Lesaffre, stepped into a driverless taxi and thought of yeast.

Fermentation, he says, is entering a phase like autonomous driving: responsive, adaptive, and deeply informed by data. He calls it “digital fermentation.” Its goal is to empower ethanol producers, who live on tight margins and shifting inputs, to respond dynamically to real-world pressure.

Fermentation has always been about change. For Lesaffre, founded in 1853 (the same year Louis Pasteur began unravelling the mysteries of microorganisms), this means navigating complexity with humility. “Fermentation makes you humble every day,” Amaral said.

Leaf’s approach is to equip producers with technologies that are capex-light but capability-deep: genetically advanced yeast strains, fermentation software, metabolic engineering. The goal is flexibility.

“We learn from feedstock variations in Germany, from temperature events in the Midwest, from startups in Africa. But we don’t assume what worked in one region will work in another.

His analogy is clear: oil and gas companies have lobby power, scale, consolidation. Ethanol by contrast is decentralized, driven by farmers, cooperatives, and local investors. “If we don’t protect the base, the system collapses.” READ MORE